


they can't deny you were here

by mockturtletale



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Friendship study, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 08:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1850638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mockturtletale/pseuds/mockturtletale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonny keeps his peace until the time comes to swap it out for something better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	they can't deny you were here

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'headphones' on a home_ice challenge.

There's one and only one rule to their friendship. If Jonny is wearing headphones, he is out of bounds. Sharpy can go and bother literally anyone else on the team, but Jonny gets that pass when he needs it. 

He doesn't abuse the privilege, and that's pretty much the sole reason that Sharpy allows it. His earbuds are always in for the walk from the parking lot to the player's lounge and vice versa because United is regularly crawling with people he doesn't want to deal with when he's heading into or home from a game. They're practically super glued in place when he's on the bike, because the chord gets in the way when he's doing almost every other activity he's gotta do, and Jonny needs to stay in a certain kind of headspace when he's working out. One that is pointedly devoid of Patrick Sharp. 

As a general rule, Sharpy is a great guy. He's someone Jonny is particularly close to, and maybe their interactions are 60% devoted to Sharpy's near-religious pursuit of Jonny's fury, but that in itself is nothing like it looks to anyone who doesn't know them both well. Jonny needs that as much as Sharpy does, though they never acknowledge this between them or otherwise. 

At first it really had driven Jonny out of his fucking mind; the needling, the verbal poking, the very literal prodding. Sharpy is relentless, and Jonny hadn't had a leg to stand on when he was still young and so focused on looking forward that glancing to his left felt like falling into his blind spot. Back then, his reaction had been completely genuine. His anger had been real and legendary. 

These days it's routine. Still real, but now a very necessary and cathartic part of his process. Sharpy digs him out of himself when he's so far gone he's starting to lose sight of the way back. Looking forward has given way to a kind of self reflection that Jonny still isn't great at, still doesn't totally have a handle on, and Sharpy knows it. Sharpy helps him out. 

When Sharpy cracks jokes, it gives Jonny an instant in. A moment in the here and now that takes no real effort to reach for and take. Sharpy throws his jibes into the air like fishing lures sent out to grab Jonny's attention and the very rough, very real touches that follow give him something to hold onto. A hand to lead him back. 

There's always a moment when Jonny will glance at Sharpy right before he launches into an easy attack on Sharpy's person, on everything he chooses to be in the world and around Jonny specifically. Jonny catches Sharpy's eye and nods, a 'thanks' he offers before he gives Sharpy what he needs in return. 

But more and more, Jonny is finding that he doesn't need to grope his way toward an anchor in those moments, and no longer needs his pass from them as much as he once did. He could find Sharpy in the dark, these days, and he now knows himself well enough to be his own guide there and back. 

That doesn't mean he's giving up his singular solace in the face of Sharpy's total assault. 

Jonny still wears his headphones about as often as he ever has, but now it's odds on that he's not listening to anything other than the slighted muted din of his friends and teammates around him. 

Today, for example, he's sitting on the bus with his headphones on and his hands in his lap, trying not to smile at the argument Smith and Saader are having over the relative merits of toothpaste as pimple treatment. 

A hand comes into view, and Jonny doesn't look up, doesn't need to to know that those are Kaner's knuckles, Kaner's fingers curled over the edge of his seat, clearly tensed up and ready to cause a ruckus in his personal space. Just like always. 

But before he can: 

"Not now, Peeks," Jonny hears Sharpy say from several rows behind, quiet but authoritative, the 'A' ringing clear like it very rarely does, because he hardly ever needs or wants it to. "The captain is in solitary, and he doesn't get out until he says he does, so take it back to your seat and stow it." 

Miraculously, Kaner listens, and Jonny keeps his peace until the time comes to swap it out for something better.

**Author's Note:**

> Not true, not profiting.


End file.
